New Part Of Hospital Ok`d

Patients will begin moving into the $36 million S.A. Mudano Patient Care Tower in late October, said hospital administrator Frank Sacco.

Last week, the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services gave its approval to the eight-story building.

Hospital administrators still must get the approval of city code inspectors, Sacco said.

The tower was scheduled to open in September, but state health inspectors cited several minor violations, Sacco said.

The first section of the tower to open will be the first-floor, 16,500- square-foot emergency room, which has areas for trauma care and walk-in patients. Another section is designated for critically ill children.

The new emergency room will shorten waits for treatment. The emergency room is about 50 percent larger than the old one, which does not have separate facilities for trauma patients, Sacco said.

The intensive-care unit, on the tower`s second floor, will be one of the first wards to move and will expand from 48 to 54 beds.

Semi-private and private rooms will be on the second and third floors. A 44- bed maternity ward and a newborn nursery will be on the fourth floor, and a heart-monitoring 48-bed ward will be on the fifth floor.

The sixth floor will have 48 beds for patients who have undergone surgery. The seventh floor will have a 48-bed neurology unit, and the top floor will be used to treat cancer patients.